Savvy Decision Making

Savvy Decision Making
Author: Madhavi Jayanthi
Publisher: Corwin Press
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2002
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780761978190

This book is a guide is for school practitioners who want to know more about planning and conducting focus groups as an aid to decision-making. It emphasizes practical and cost-effective ways to ensure accurate results. After defining the focus group, chapter 1 offers ways focus groups can be used in schools and reasons for using them. Chapter 2 discusses guidelines for selecting a moderator. Chapter 3 explains how to clarify the purpose of the focus group. Chapter 4 explains how to determine which participants to include in the focus groups. Chapter 5 examines strategies for scheduling the number, location, and duration of the focus groups. Chapter 6 considers choices about recording the discussion, remunerating participants, asking for participant releases, and having an advance organizer. Chapter 7 covers all aspects of recruiting participants. Chapter 8 examines the protocol for conducting the focus groups. Chapter 9 contains guidelines for moderating the group. Chapter 10 discusses the analysis of information gained and the writing of reports. Each chapter offers examples from past focus groups and reproducible checklists of activities that must be completed, as well as samples of forms, letters, and lists. Many topics are accompanied by a summary of differing opinions from the literature. (Contains 35 references.) (RKJ)

Risk Savvy

Risk Savvy
Author: Gerd Gigerenzer
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2014-04-17
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0141970111

A fascinating, practical guide to making better decisions with our money, health and personal lives from Gerd Gigerenzer, the author of Reckoning with Risk. Risk-taking is essential for innovation, fun, and the courage to face the uncertainties in life. Yet for many important decisions, we're often presented with statistics and probabilities that we don't really understand and we inevitably rely on experts in the relevant fields - policy makers, financial advisors, doctors - to analyse and choose for us. But what if they don't quite understand the way the information is presented either? How do we make sure we're asking doctors the right questions about proposed treatment? Is there a rule of thumb that could help choose the right partner? This entertaining book shows us how to recognize when we don't have all the information and know what to do about it. Gerd Gigerenzer looks at examples from every aspect of life to identify the reasons for our collective misunderstanding of the risks we face. He shows how we can all use simple rules to avoid being manipulated into unrealistic fears or hopes, to make better-informed decisions, and to learn to understand risk and uncertainty in our own lives. 'Gigerenzer is brilliant and his topic is fabulous' Steven Pinker 'Catchily optimistic and slyly funny' Guardian Gerd Gigerenzer is Director of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and former Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books on heuristics and decision making, including Reckoning with Risk.

Risk Savvy

Risk Savvy
Author: Gerd Gigerenzer
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2015-03-31
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0143127101

A new eye-opener on how we can make better decisions—by the author of Gut Feelings In this age of big data we often trust that expert analysis—whether it’s about next year’s stock market or a person’s risk of getting cancer—is accurate. But, as risk expert Gerd Gigerenzer reveals in his latest book, Risk Savvy, most of us, including doctors, lawyers, and financial advisors, often misunderstand statistics, leaving us misinformed and vulnerable to exploitation. Yet there’s hope. In Risk Savvy, Gigerenzer gives us an essential guide to the science of good decision making, showing how ordinary people can make better decisions for their money, their health, and their families. Here, Gigerenzer delivers the surprising conclusion that the best results often come from considering less information and listening to your gut.

Future Savvy

Future Savvy
Author: Adam Gordon
Publisher: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2008-09-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0814412866

In order to succeed in their industries, decision-makers today need to anticipate the future outcomes not only in their own industry but also in society and technology as well. The better their view of the future, the better their decisions--and the bigger their profits–will be. Future Savvy is a hands-on, how-to book on evaluating the business, social, and technology forecasts that appear in everyday communications such as newspapers and business magazines, as well as in specialized sources like government and think-tank forecasts, consultant reports, and stock-market guides. Futures analyst Adam Gordon has spent his career deciphering changes and trends in a variety of industries. Now, he shows business leaders how to gain a clearer view of the future, as well as: • Recognize potential trends and outcomes more effectively • Discount poor and biased forecasts more confidently • Anticipate relevant opportunities and potential threats earlier

Political Savvy

Political Savvy
Author: Joel R. DeLuca
Publisher: Evergreen Business Group
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1999
Genre: Leadership
ISBN: 0966763602

Climate Savvy

Climate Savvy
Author: Lara J. Hansen
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2010-10-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1597269883

Climate change demands a change in how we envision, prioritize, and implement conservation and management of natural resources. Addressing threats posed by climate change cannot be simply an afterthought or an addendum, but must be integrated into the very framework of how we conceive of and conduct conservation and management. In Climate Savvy, climate change experts Lara Hansen and Jennifer Hoffman offer 18 chapters that consider the implications of climate change for key resource management issues of our time—invasive species, corridors and connectivity, ecological restoration, pollution, and many others. How will strategies need to change to facilitate adaptation to a new climate regime? What steps can we take to promote resilience? Based on collaboration with a wide range of scientists, conservation leaders, and practitioners, the authors present general ideas as well as practical steps and strategies that can help cope with this new reality. While climate change poses real threats, it also provides a chance for creative new thinking. Climate Savvy offers a wide-ranging exploration of how scientists, managers, and policymakers can use the challenge of climate change as an opportunity to build a more holistic and effective philosophy that embraces the inherent uncertainty and variability of the natural world to work toward a more robust future.

IT Savvy

IT Savvy
Author: Peter Weill
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2009-07-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1422136566

Digitization of business interactions and processes is advancing full bore. But in many organizations, returns from IT investments are flatlining, even as technology spending has skyrocketed. These challenges call for new levels of IT savvy: the ability of all managers-IT or non-IT-to transform their company's technology assets into operational efficiencies that boost margins. Companies with IT-savvy managers are 20 percent more profitable than their competitors. In IT Savvy, Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross-two of the world's foremost authorities on using IT in business-explain how non-IT executives can acquire this savvy. Concise and practical, the book describes the practices, competencies, and leadership skills non-IT managers need to succeed in the digital economy. You'll discover how to: -Define your firm's operating model-how IT can help you do business -Revamp your IT funding model to support your operating model -Build a digitized platform of business processes, IT systems, and data to execute on the model -Determine IT decision rights -Extract more business value from your IT assets Packed with examples and based on research into eighteen hundred organizations in more than sixty countries, IT Savvy is required reading for non-IT managers seeking to push their company's performance to new heights.

Agility

Agility
Author: Mark Mueller-Eberstein
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2010-06-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0470912529

Insider secrets to competing-and winning-in the tech-savvy marketplace The new generation of technology savvy workers is changing the way we look at productivity. Agility uniquely describes how technology agility impacts your business's performance and can become a critical success factor. A must-read for leaders defining business strategy and technology implementation, the methodology it describes will show how to measure and drive technology adoption and the derived impact on business results. Includes international cases of various industries, from industry leaders Incorporates the ideas of flexibility, balance, adaptability, and coordination under one umbrella Uniquely describes how technology agility impacts business performance What differentiates Audi, BMW and Mercedes or GM? Understanding it can make or break the future of an organization. Agility makes it clear: the digital divide will be seen in those who take full advantage of the technology versus those merely have it.

How to Decide

How to Decide
Author: Annie Duke
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2020-10-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0593418484

Through a blend of compelling exercises, illustrations, and stories, the bestselling author of Thinking in Bets will train you to combat your own biases, address your weaknesses, and help you become a better and more confident decision-maker. What do you do when you're faced with a big decision? If you're like most people, you probably make a pro and con list, spend a lot of time obsessing about decisions that didn't work out, get caught in analysis paralysis, endlessly seek other people's opinions to find just that little bit of extra information that might make you sure, and finally go with your gut. What if there was a better way to make quality decisions so you can think clearly, feel more confident, second-guess yourself less, and ultimately be more decisive and be more productive? Making good decisions doesn't have to be a series of endless guesswork. Rather, it's a teachable skill that anyone can sharpen. In How to Decide, bestselling author Annie Duke and former professional poker player lays out a series of tools anyone can use to make better decisions. You'll learn: • To identify and dismantle hidden biases. • To extract the highest quality feedback from those whose advice you seek. • To more accurately identify the influence of luck in the outcome of your decisions. • When to decide fast, when to decide slow, and when to decide in advance. • To make decisions that more effectively help you to realize your goals and live your values. Through interactive exercises and engaging thought experiments, this book helps you analyze key decisions you've made in the past and troubleshoot those you're making in the future. Whether you're picking investments, evaluating a job offer, or trying to figure out your romantic life, How to Decide is the key to happier outcomes and fewer regrets.

Decide & Deliver

Decide & Deliver
Author: Marcia W. Blenko
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1422147576

-Identify your critical decisions. Focus on those that matter most to your company's performance. --